Exchange apparatus

Abstract

An exchange apparatus comprised of hollow thermoplastic tubes infusion bonded into a thermoplastic material is disclosed. In a preferred embodiment the hollow tubes are shaped by plaiting the tubes into cords and then thermally annealing the cords to set the crests and bends of the plait. The cords provide improved flow distribution of fluid about the hollow tube tubes in the exchange apparatus. The exchange apparatus is chemically inert and is useful for cross flow filtration, as well as heat and mass transfer in harsh chemical environments.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of provisional application Ser. No. 60 / 326,234 filed Oct. 1, 2001 entitled Fluid Exchange Device. This application is related to co-pending application filed concurrently herewith as U.S. Ser. No. 60 / 326,357, filed Oct. 1, 2001 under Applicants' reference number 200100293 (formerly MYKP-621).FIELD OF INVENTION[0002]This invention relates to a hollow tube or hollow fiber membrane exchange apparatus useful for heat transfer, particle filtration, and mass transfer applications. The apparatus comprises a housing containing fusion bonded hollow tubes that have been previously plaited and thermally annealed to set the plait. The apparatus has a high packing density of hollow tubes with enhanced fluid flow distribution provided by the plaited hollow tubes. The apparatus provides high contacting area in a small volume without the need for baffles. The device is made from chemically inert thermoplastic materials and has the abilit...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0020]In one embodiment the hollow tubes in the apparatus are braided, plaited, or twisted together to create a cord of the tubes or fibers prior to fusion bonding into the thermoplastic resin to form a unified terminal block. Such cords provide enhanced flow distribution of fluid through the apparatus without the need for baffling. A high packing density of hollow tubes or cords is achieved with this invention.

Problems solved by technology

However, polymeric heat exchange devices are usually large because a high heat transfer surface area is required to effect a given temperature change due to the low thermal conductivity of the polymers used in the device.

Such devices take up valuable space, requires large holdup volumes of chemicals or exchange fluid, and are costly to make.

Such devices also require o-ring seals which are prone to failure and are also a source of ionic and particulate contamination.

Quartz is susceptible to breakage and exposed resistively heated surfaces pose fire and explosion hazards especially for organic liquids and liquids which evolve flammable gases.

Baffling of perfluronated tubes is not practical using this technique.

It is cumbersome, and expensive to manufacture exchange contactors using this technique.

Such a method does not contemplate the use of thermoplastics nor does it address the need for the substantially higher surface area required for low thermally conductive thermoplastic materials.

Such a method produces an irregular pattern of entrances to the hollows of the tubes effecting non-uniform flow distribution to the tubes.

Such a device requires mechanical fixtures to hold the tubes in place and as such requires a large volume of space.

The authors observe that hand built modules have more uniform fiber spacing but that the cost of such modules do not justify their higher manufacturing cost.

Such a device method requires expensive and complicated weaving equipment to fix the fibers in a preferred relationship in the tube mats.

Currently it is impractical to use thermoplastic heat exchangers for large heat loads, shell side liquid flow, or efficient shell side cross flow filtration because of the high expense and large size of devices needed.

Metal heat exchangers are unacceptable for use in semiconductor manufacturing because of the corrosive nature of the chemicals and also because of the need to eliminate metallic and particulate impurities from process liquids.

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